Issue 13 (November)

Order Now: New Curriculum in the Leading to Choices Leadership Training Series

WLP is pleased to announce the release of the new Spanish and Shona editions of Leading to Choices: A Leadership Training Handbook for Women, as well as the Persian edition of Leading to Choices: A Multimedia Curriculum for Leadership Learning.

The Leading to Choices training handbook is now available in 14 languages: Assamese, Maghreby-Arabic, Shamy-Arabic, English, French, Hausa, Malay, Meiteilon, Persian, Russian, Uzbek, Shona, Spanish, and Swahili. Five additional language editions are currently under development: Bahasa-Indonesian, Kokborok, Portuguese, Tagalog, and Turkish. The Leading to Choices multimedia pack is now available in two languages: English and Persian, with an Arabic edition close to release.

Order your copy of Leading to Choices or a multimedia pack.

WLP President Attends Women Ministers of Culture Meeting in Reykjavik

The Government of Ireland in cooperation with The Council of Women World Leaders held a Special Meeting of Women Ministers of Culture in Reykjavik, Iceland from August 29-30, 2005 to address the theme "Women's Voices and Cultural Understanding." WLP President Mahnaz Afkhami presented a keynote speech entitled "Women's Cultural Rights." Keynote speaker Cherie Booth QC presented the World Economic Forum report, "Women's Empowerment: Measuring the Global Gender Gap," comparing women's education, economic status, and power on a global level. Women Ministers of Culture from around the world in attendance at the meeting agreed to form an International Network of Women Ministers of Culture (WMoC) to address women's unequal cultural status, which continues to form a barrier to economic and social progress. The ministers agreed that, "...there has to be a fundamental change in recognizing the cultural rights of women in all societies. No social or political philosophy nor religious doctrine can be perpetuated and used to deny women their fundamental human rights on equal basis with men. This view needs to be forcefully voiced in international fora and media and through organizations like the United Nations and UNESCO."

WLP Welcomes New Staff Members

WLP welcomes three new staff members this quarter. We appreciate the skills, energy and commitment they bring to their work, and look forward to a productive year together!

Marion Marquardt, Technology Associate, coordinates WLP's ICT empowerment projects. She received her BSc and MEng in Computer Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and MPhil in Technology Policy at Cambridge University where she focused on gender and ICT. She has worked as Lead Program Manager at Microsoft Corporation for many years, coordinating the deployment of international content management suites as well as managing data warehousing, data mining, and online reporting systems.

Milagros Ruiz, Administrative Assistant, provides key administrative and programmatic support for all areas of WLP's work. She received her BA in Anthropology at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she focused on women's studies and archaeology. A volunteer for the DC Action Center of the National Organization of Women, she has previously worked for an anthropological consulting firm that provides cultural resource management to the Washington metro area.

Anna Workman, Progam Associate, coordinates communications at WLP and provides support for the leadership program. She holds a BA/MA in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh and an MA in International Relations from the University of Chicago. She wrote her thesis paper on the internal politics of transnational women’s networks, drawing on three months of fieldwork with women’s organizations based in Nairobi, Kenya. Anna has over three years of experience in the international non-profit sector and most recently worked for the Human Rights Program at the University of Chicago, coordinating their international internship program and academic workshops.

Five-Year Report Now Available

Since it was founded in 2000, WLP has worked to help women from the Global South emerge from the fringes of their societies and become fully engaged leaders and advocates. WLP is dedicated to increasing women's role in family, community, and national decision-making, and in the process creating societies that are more democratic, tolerant, and ethical.  Read our Five-Year Report.

Support Our Work Today!

Your generous support for WLP and our partners’ efforts will help advance women’s rights and freedoms around the world. You can make a difference! Please send your tax-deductible donation today.

• $50 – Provides leadership training materials for two women in Afghanistan
• $100 – Provides a scholarship for one woman to participate in an E-course on leadership
• $250 – Enables a woman in Cameroon to attend a Technology Training Institute
• $500 – Enables five women to develop their advocacy skills in Lebanon

Donate online or send a check payable to Women’s Learning Partnership. Contributions may also be made through the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) by designating Women's Learning Partnership CFC#: 1041.

"I was a closed box with little outside experience. The leadership training has lifted the cover of the box and allowed me to learn from the experience of others." Leadership workshop participant, Turkey

"It took us only three days to deepen our relationships. Even though we have known each other for many years, each one of us lived in her own world and shared nothing with the others. By the end of this workshop, we are sure that by working together, we will be able to build a democratic and egalitarian society." Leadership workshop participant, Morocco

"We all know that computers are complex and that information technology is an expansive subject. From the Training of Trainers workshop, I learned how to teach the fundamentals of computer use in just five days, as well as innovative techniques for using information."  ICT Institute participant, Afghanistan